Techfest NW Dispatches: Carbon Audio Throws Down the Gauntlet

Kickstarter-Funded Electronics Startup Announces New Product

That was Jason Martin, co-CEO of Carbon Audio burying the lede at the end of what was otherwise the equivalent of a motivational speech for potential Kickstarter users, at Techfest NW at OMSI on Saturday, September 7..

Towards the end of other Keynote driven presentation that emphasized such well-worn ideas as "Build To Win" and "Ask Why 5x," Martin and one of his business partners, Patrick Striato, revealed that the follow up to their successful Bluetooth speaker Zooka would be Pocket Speaker, another Bluetooth driven device about the size of a deck of cards and pumps out audio at an alarming volume.

After showing it off, Martin gave a demonstration, filling the small auditorium at OMSI with some a booming R&B track. The small speaker will be shipped off to Apple at the beginning of next month.

How Carbon Audio has been able to keep that under wraps is pretty surprising. But it's a testament to the company's speed and guile, as evidenced by the fact that they were able to prototype and then ship out their Zooka speakers to Apple and other distributors in seven months. Now the little rubber speaker that slides easily onto an iPad is available in 34 countries.

What didn't really come out of this presentation was any sense of how a company could really succeed through crowdfunding as Carbon Audio did. Striato did note that it was even tougher for potential Kickstarter users as the site requires much stronger evidence that a finished product is ready to go. "All we had was renderings of the speaker," he said. "Now, you have to have a proven concept that works to make sure and protect people from losing their money."